Bah Humbug Averted

So towards the beginning of the month of December I was definitely channeling some Ebenezer Scrooge.  But thankfully, due in part to the multiple visits from various Spirits of Christmas, I finally caught the Christmas joy myself.

My first Spirit of Christmas came in the form of my wonderful husband who pointed out the whole dead dreams ordeal.  Thankfully that light-bulb moment has turned my whole direction around.  I am dreaming again – just not putting concrete time frames on those dreams – but definitely working towards them again.

My hubby also sent me to Idaho to visit my side of the herd.  The 30 plus hours in a car with 5 kids fortunately didn’t do me in, thanks in part to audio books.  And I got the bonus of seeing my kids dress up for a family nativity.  Abner, T-Rev and my brother Zippy make quite the impressive beardless Wise men, don’t you think?

 

Santa even made a surprise appearance and Hope had to bend his ear and then some… I mean the girl would talk to him non-stop, even as he was visiting with her other cousins.  She nigh near snowballed him with question after question about reindeer and his sleigh and everything Christmas.  But seeing her so into the magic of Christmas helped me gain a little bit of that magic myself.

Then it was back to the house to see how many grandkids it takes to tackle grandpa.  I got a workout just watching the mini-wrestling match.

All in all it was a wonderful trip, full of family visits, elf previews of Christmas, lots of nummy-yummy treats, digit numbing cold snow, Christmas lights, Iron port drink from the local drive-in, and Love.

Then it was back to our Pacific Northwest home for Christmas.  It was by far our most simple Christmas but the kids handled the low volume of presents with not a single complaint.

My husbands parents nailed me with one of the best gifts,  a dream necklace and CD full of dream songs.  I keep them right next to my dream journal when I’m not wearing or listening to them.  My kids thought I was nutty when I started crying when I saw the thoughtful gift, and they are right, I am nutty.  But it was the perfect gift.

Christmas day would have been perfect had the car not broken down.  But we are used to these unexpected bumps.  I have to say the downer of that break-down was more than made up for by this miracle.

Remember my redneck kitchen?

Well my friend Good Enough’s Angel Husband decided to help rebuild part of our missing kitchen.  We salvaged the drawers and door fronts from our old cabinets and he built them into some more salvaged bases and painted them for us.

Poor guy had to endure me sitting in the kitchen, watching the cabinets go in,  grinning like an idiot cause I was so happy.   Wow, it’s beginning to look like a real kitchen again.

I love all the angels that made this year so special amidst all the unbloggable stuff.  Thank you Angels.  I certainly hope that sometime in the near future I can pay it forward times ten.  I would just love to share the happiness that they gave to me.

Angels Among Us.

It was the Best of Days. It was the Worst of Days.


Worst because someone nicked my husband’s work backpack containing his laptop, cycling shoes, wallet, and smelly bike clothes right out of his personal office at work. Of course he talked with security who said they rarely have anything like this happen – so signs are pointing to the temporary painters and carpet layers who have been working in the building lately.

You can guess that his afternoon was occupied with calling around canceling credit cards and all that fun stuff.

Best because of our Angels.

I got a phone call mid-day from our sweet friends Delbert and Michelle and they wanted to join us for Family Home Evening activities and were wondering if it would be o.k. if Delbert brought his good friend the Tractor. I think I had mentioned my secret garden to Michelle not too long ago and she passed the info. on to her sweetie. And since he loves his tractor and has so much fun on it they were hoping that he could come have fun at our home…

Before they came I had T-Rev help me pull up the old planter boxes out of the garden.

'The Gardens before shot.'

Then out of the goodness of his heart and his overwhelming urge to play with his Tractor, Delber attacked our Secret Garden in a good way.




It could be because he was embarrassed at the state of disrepair our little food store has fallen in to recently.

However you'd have to know the real reason is because Michelle and him are those one-in-a-million, down-to-earth, most amazing neighbors who are so Christlike that they would give the shirt off their backs to help anyone.

Another Before: Notice that you can barely even see the planer boxes through all the weeds.







Their generosity probably saved me a good month's worth of yard work. I now might actually have the opportunity to plant a garden before it's too late to plant.

Prince Erik enjoyed some fresh air while drooling over Delbert's toy.

And if Delbert playing with his Tractor wasn't enough, Michelle attacked with a fervor, another front flower bed.

It seems no matter where we have lived there have always been some kind people, angels, friends who for no reason other than to be nice give up an evening or valuable block of time to touch our lives in a Christlike manner, with nothing expected in return.

And being as it was a downer day for my husband, this was the perfect pick-me-up to help restore our faith in the generosity and kindness of others.

So Thank Heaven for angels, especially Delbert and Michelle!